"I Saw Satan Fall Like Lightening... "

By John Stallings

Have you ever wondered why the Lion is called “The king of the beasts?”

I have, and for good reason. The lion simply isn’t the king of the beasts. Admittedly the lion is fast, powerful and stealthy, but again -not the real king of the beasts.

That’s right, the lion isn’t,-not even by a long shot - the real king of the beasts. Well, if the lion isn’t the king of the beasts, what animal is?

Let’s consider the grizzly bear. Do you think a big, 400 lb. lion could win in a battle with a 1500 pound grizzly? No way! The bear is three times bigger than the lion is. The grizzly would win! Hands [or paws] down.

So Mr. Lion just lost his title. -Or did he?

If the lion isn’t really the king of the beasts, why is he called the king? Well, the reason is because lions hunt in prides, or packs. If a lion and a grizzly got in a fight, do you think there’d be several, as many as thirty grizzlies there to help the bear? Sorry. It won’t happen.

What about the lion? There would be dozens of other lions show up and that would be the end of the grizzly.

A few years ago I didn’t know what YOUTUBE was. But here I am recommending one of their videos to you. I first saw the video I’m going to tell you about several years ago on Discovery. I was surprised to learn they now have it on YOUTUBE. I would recommend if you haven’t seen it to watch this video. Amazing! It’s called-Battle at Kruger, a national park in Africa.

In September 2004 a baby Cape buffalo got separated from the group and a bunch of lions instantly came and attacked the baby. The little buffalo was struggling but in vain. The baby ran toward the water but the lions followed and got close to the water and continued the attack. So here we have the baby buffalo in the water and five or six lions are pulling on him. The fight continues when all of the sudden two crocodiles come up from the water and grab the baby buffalo. So there is the baby buffalo with the lions pulling from one side and the crocs from the other side.

The baby buffalo was facing certain death from either direction. But finally the crocs relent and the lions succeed in pulling the baby up on dry land and settled down to eat it. However, about this time a  large group of Cape buffalo got their act together and approached the scene in mass. They got up close to the proceedings and were “snorting fire.” One of the big buffalo gored one of the lions and threw him high in the air. That tickled me good. The buffalo chased the other lions away and amazingly the baby gets up and walks back to the safety of his rescuers. The group saved him.

Peter tells us;

Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.-1 Peter 5:8

It doesn’t get clearer than that. This verse tells us that Satan isn’t hiding out in hell; he’s up here in our midst just waiting for an opportunity to unleash havoc in our lives. Peter says; watch out, your adversary is just waiting to pounce.We open ourselves up to satanic attack when we step out of God’s “Safari vehicle.”

If I wanted to preach a little here about church attendance- I could. I believe I will. Friend if you or I try to face the evils of this world by ourselves we will soon go down. Stay with the group. Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. It’s dangerous to be out there alone so don’t do it. We need each other and most of all we need Jesus.

WE LIVE AMONG MODERN HUNGRY LIONS

 TV lions. Computer lions. Immoral lions. Satan is a spiritual predator who stalks our children, our marriages and our lives. We’re not safe alone. Join with Jesus and put on His armor and you’ll be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Don’t get out of God’s safari vehicle of protection. Don’t wander off on your own. Stay in Christ. Walk in the light as He is in the light. Satan, in a manner of speaking, “owns the night.” Snakes and other nasty things crawl at night.

 Have you ever noticed that not much bad happens in the daytime? We get up in the morning to listen to the news about what happened last night. Very few stabbings or shootings happen during the daylight hours. Night is the dangerous time. Darkness belongs to the nocturnal predators. When watching the animal channels, if they show lions and how they spend their days, they’re usually either sleeping or just lying around, because they’ve been up all night hunting.

Bad things lurk in the shadows. As a child I was afraid of the dark and when I look back now, I realize I was right.

As people of God you and I are children of the light. When the fire goes out, the darkness intensifies and the lions come close. Keep the fire burning in your heart. Without Jesus you and I are toast, but with Him we’re invincible.

JESUS SAID-“I SAW SATAN FALL LIKE LIGHTENING FROM HEAVEN”

Jesus had His twelve disciples but He also had another group of helpers called “The Seventy” that He’d send out on ministry missions. One day they returned from one of these junkets all abuzz about how “even the demons were subject to them.” Jesus looked around and found a stump to stand on to quiet them down. Then He addressed them;

I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven. Behold I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. Nevertheless, don’t rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written down in heaven. – [Luke 10:17-20]

The last part of that verse deserves a lot of time but I’ll have to leave it for later.

The Bible contains only a small amount of material about Satan’s origins however Jesus tells us concerning Satan;

He was a murderer from the beginning and doesn’t stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks he speaks a lie from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it. [John 8:44]

To the popular mind the idea of a real devil is practically a laughing matter and a source of jokes, but we’d do well to take him seriously. He doesn’t wear red underwear with horns and a tail and carry a pitch-fork, but he’s still a threat which is why Paul noted that -we aren’t to be ignorant of his tricks, traps, plans schemes, contrivances or stratagem. [2 Cor. 2:11]

Here are some of the ways Satan is at work in our lives;

· he has his dark angels to help (Revelation 12:7)
· he has his own ministers (2 Corinthians 11:15)
· he performs his own miracles (2 Thessalonians 2:9; Matthew 7:21-23)
· he instigates false doctrine (1 Timothy 4:1-3)
· he perverts the Word of God (Genesis 3:1-4)
· he hinders the works of God’s servants (1 Thessalonians 2:18)
· he blinds men from the truth (2 Corinthians 4:4)
· he accuses Christians before God (Job 1 & 2; Zechariah 3:1-4; Revelation 12:10)
· he lays snares for men (2 Timothy 2:26; 1 Tim 3:7)
· he tempts (Matthew 4:1; Ephesians 6:11)
· he afflicts (this one’s all too common in Scripture, - Job 2:7; Acts 10:38)

It’s scary to know the devil has tricked much of the world into believing he’s no more real than the Easter Bunny.

Satan is real, not just a figment of human imagination. He’s personal in that he’s not some vague embodiment of evil. Jesus called Satan by name when He overcame him and at the time of His
temptation in the wilderness. Matthew 4:10/Luke 22:3.

SATAN IS A FIERCE AND POWERFUL FOE

He was created a powerful and intelligent angel who became full of pride and desired to be worshiped as God instead of serve and worship God. He wages a war in heaven where he loses and he and 1/3 of the angels who fought on his side are swept out of heaven. These fallen angels are referred to in the bible as demons, powers, authorities, spirits. They’re powerful, evil, angelic hosts that carry out Satan’s designs. They are highly organized. Satan is thoroughly evil, hates God and all that is good and is set on destroying all that God has made.

He targeted our first parents in the garden. Adam and Eve were put on the earth to be God’s representatives and exercise dominion over God’s creation. But Satan tempted them with his own hubris: you can be like God and can be autonomous from God. They rebelled against God and willfully sided with Satan over God. In doing so, Satan introduced his dominion, exercising a pervasive, controlling influence over the world, so that the Scriptures call him the “ruler of this world,” “the god of this age,” “the prince of the power of the air,” and states that “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”

Satan exercises a powerful, controlling influence over people, nations, in this fallen world and promotes every kind of evil. Anytime we see violence, bloodshed, murder, war, oppression, genocide, or any other expression of hate as well as any and every sin, deception and evil, Satan and his demonic host are promoting it, enticing people to it and empowering it.

He is the “spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:2). You can trace all evil, error, and violence back to Satan. His ultimate desire is to deceive all people away from God into sin, misery, death and eternal destruction. This is an age when he is continually active and his reign over what the bible calls “the kingdom of darkness” is very real. But we should never forget…

SATAN IS A DEFEATED FOE

This is essentially what Jesus was telling the seventy, He was watching when satan fell like lightening from heaven. When Satan deceived Adam and Eve and plunged the entire world into sin, misery, and death, God made a promise. Genesis 3:14-15 says;

“The LORD God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.” “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

This is a promise that God would bring forth from the woman one who would utterly defeat Satan.

We know from the rest of the story that Jesus is the promised one, eternal God the Son, incarnate. 1 John 3:8 “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” Jesus came to inaugurate the Kingdom of God. His life and ministry showed that Satan’s kingdom was crumbling and the Kingdom of God was overcoming it and would one day eradicate Satan and the kingdom of darkness. Matthew 25 and Revelation chapter 20 give us the final word on Satan. He will be cast into eternal fires of hell along with his demonic hosts, a place created specifically for him, and the Kingdom of this World will become of the Kingdom of our God and his Christ…

Satan opposed Jesus during his earthly life and at every stage, Jesus overcame him. Satan’s greatest attempt was to entice Judas to betray Jesus and the political powers to crucify him. But even in doing so he was, unknowingly the agent of God to bring about the plan of God and seal his own doom.

It was the cross that dealt the decisive death blow to Satan. Col 2:13-15. Satan’s destructive power lies in his ability to deceive people away from God into sin, misery and ultimately eternal condemnation. The Cross strips him of that power – it reconciles us to God, secures forgiveness of all sin, releases us from condemnation by paying the penalty for sins, frees us from sin’s controlling power, purchases for us the Holy Spirit who empowers us to resist temptation and hear and obey God and live in his will, and gives us an eternal home in heaven forever.

Those of us who have sided with Jesus, who have received his grace and salvation have experienced a dramatic change in our life. Colossians 1:13-14 says;

“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

We are no longer enslaved to darkness, no longer enslaved to his controlling influence and no longer captive by his lies to do his will, no longer kept alienated from God and under condemnation.

We belong to Jesus; we are forgiven, live in his kingdom and are under his saving reign. Satan is defeated; Christ has rescued us from his grip on our lives. Jesus is sovereign over evil powers and has defeated them. So Satan is utterly defeated by Jesus and doomed. His days are numbered; his kingdom will come to a complete end. But Satan is like a Kamakazi pilot; he’s as good as dead, but he’s going to take down with him as many as he can.

I recently ran across a T.V program about a man who travels the world looking for “River monsters,” -fish who live in fresh water but are still very large and dangerous. He always catches and releases fish after his “study” is complete. He obviously doesn’t want to kill them, just make them late.

This man happened to be fishing in Texas lakes and rivers for GAR. This is what fishermen call “trash fish” because they’re not good for anything, they just kill and eat “good fish.” As a kid I can remember fishing with my father and when he’d catch one of these fish he’d be disgusted and say, “Oh, it’s just an old Gar.”

These GAR fish have rows of teeth almost comparable to alligators, and even the smaller ones can inflict damage on a person. The first Gar the man pulled in was about three feet long, although Gar can grow to be over seven feet long. The fish was thrashing about the boat so hard he cut the fisherman’s hand and blood was flowing everywhere. For all practical purposes, the fish was helpless and defeated lying in the boat but even though small he was able to inflict some damage.

This, to me is a good way to think of Satan. He’s defeated but still able to deeply wound us if we lose sight of the fact that he’s alive and is on the job 24/7.

Satan is like the “trash fish.” He can create nothing. He’s never made anything and he’ll never make anything. All he can do is destroy what God has made. His power is totally negative in every way.His delight is to smash, mangle, twist, mutilate, disfigure, darken and blast in every way he can. He destroys by deceiving, by lying, by distorting, by counterfeiting, by masquerading and clouding human minds with illusions and fantasy.

Satan relentlessly opposes the people of God. Our cold and ruthless enemy steadily and untiringly opposes the Church and Christians. He and his demonic forces are intent on bringing ruin and misery upon God’s people. We wrestle not against flesh and blood.

Addictions or sinful patterns of lust, pride, anger, rage, abuse, sexual sin and perversion, lying, sloth, greed, gossip, slander, deception – all these things are fueled and inspired by our enemy and he gets a stronger grip on our life when we give in to them. Satan attacks marriages inspiring coldness, infidelity and divorce. People lose their temper with their children and abuse them either verbally or physically. He attacks churches inspiring moral failure, false doctrine and division in the body. He attacks our conscience condemning us for past sins and failures that we have already confessed to God.

Many people live with so much defeat, conflict, struggle, pain and relational turmoil in their lives, jobs, marriages, and families and are completely oblivious of what is standing behind all of it. It is not flesh and blood that is the problem. It is our cold and ruthless enemy seeking to bring sin, misery and ruin into our lives and keep us from the life God envisions for us.

But we don’t have to live defeated lives. The message of the Bible is clear – Christ is victorious and in him we are more than conquerors; he leads us in triumphal procession; greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.

We can stand strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might and resist the devil and he will flee from us. Romans 16:20 says- “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

This is the normal Christian life – one where we are not being defeated, but dealing crushing blows to the enemy as we resist him and experience Christ’s life giving grace. But victory will not come easily. We must learn how to discern and defeat the enemy. If you and I are going to win a fight, we have to know our enemy and how the enemy fights. And we have to know what weapons are being used so we can have the right weapons. Most Christians are ignorant of our enemy’s schemes. We may know that he wants to destroy our marriages, but we don’t know the subtle ways he would go about it. We may know he tempts us to sin, but we must also know his schemes that snag us.

The biblical reality is that you belong to one of two kingdoms – you have either sided with Jesus and belong to his kingdom… or you have aligned yourself, even unintentionally, with Satan who stands in rebellion against God.

If you and I either knowingly or unknowingly side with Satan we’ll share his fate.

When Satan fell like lightening from heaven, that was the beginning of his downward trajectory. His doom was sealed when Jesus died on the cross. Satan’s final fate, his last step down will be when he’s finally thrown into the lake of fire.[Rev. 20:10.]

The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus died to make humanity free and bring them into his kingdom, not by force, but by love. He died to reconcile us to God that we would no longer be enemies of God, but friends of God; He bore our condemnation so that we would not have to fear the accusations of the enemy, but could live in the freedom of forgiveness.

All the sins stacked against us, were stacked upon him.

He was condemned so we could be accepted by God.

He became powerless on the cross so that we could be empowered by the cross.

Blessings,

John